Archive for the ‘
Science ’ Category

I was thrilled to be invited back to the SOREF JCC Morrow Elementary After Care Program for the third time and to North Lauderdale Elementary for the 2nd time! What a pleasure it was to see some of the same smiling faces and respectful students again.

This visit was extra special because I brought with me one empty chrysalis, from which a monarch hatched in my own garden and another that died naturally and was still in full form. Along with a magnifying glass, the students could see up close what they looked like. The life cycle of the butterfly is so fascinating, there is so much to learn.

Morrow Elementary

How does one get from Miami to San Jose, Costa Rica? Big maps are always a big hit with children.

I’ll never grow weary of all the oohs and ahhs I get from showing the students my watercolor pencils and the detailed questions I get about how a book is made and bound

With my new poster the children can see my daughter, Rachel, who composed music for the story and my huge standard poodle, Darwin

The adult Morpho Butterfly lives for only about three weeks!

North Lauderdale Elementary

It’s important for children to learn about how writers find heir inspiration

I shared my own photo of the monarch butterfly in my garden right after it emerged from the chrysalis

It’s so exciting to see what the chrysalises look like through a magnifying glass

The students could barely wait their turns to take a look at the chrysalises up close themselves

The best question of the day by a sophisticated 2nd grader: “What is it that made you want to be an author and what is it about being an author that you most enjoy?”

A big thank you to all the curious students who love Lilly Badilly. I hope you start writing your own stories! Thank you Sharon Schwartz, SOREF JCC Elementary Services Director, Site Directors, Ms. Angel, Ms. Nancy and all to Mark, Travis and Jordan, the friendly, helpful 4th grade students who helped me carry my props to and from the car on a very windy day.

My family loves the great outdoors, and we are so fortunate to live in South Florida near The Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve. Yesterday, my banker husband had the day off for Veteran’s Day, so we ventured out to Big Cypress for an off road hike, which proved to be quite interesting!

We hiked a 5-mile loop

My husband signed us in as hikers at the entrance to the trail

A construction worker at the entrance to the trail was feeding a baby gator some bread. Not supposed to feed the gators!

Open wide!

Some critter ate this snake for lunch – all except the bones and the head

This vulture had his eyes on me as he did not like the sound of my Nikon’s shutter

Gorgeous White Peacock Butterfly (Anartia jatrophae) posed for me

Feeling adventurous, we took the Red Trail, the one less traveled.

Pine cones at their fall peak

Bobcat tracks perhaps?

Bear scat! Oh no! Is he watching me?

Woodpeckers thrive here with all the dried wood!

Yours truly, after sliding through a muddy trail with many signs of wildlife – bear, deer, bobcat and more

Please read my interview with science writer Beverly McMillan, author or A Day in the Life of Your Body. You will learn about all the work it takes to write scientific books and how fascinating the process is to create these educational titles. I now have ever greater respect for people who write these books and educate the world with their knowledge!

Please take a few minutes to read my interview on Good Reads with Ronna. Sophie Webb is a biologist and orinthologist who travels the world via ship to do research and brings along her camera and her watercolors to capture the wildlife. She turned her life’s work and passion into several high quality children’s books that I highly recommend. Both you and your children will be interested in what she had to say about life at sea.

Please read this NY Times article about the research The University of Pennsylvania is doing in Mongolia. My daughter is part of the research team! The research group lives in gers (tents) along Lake Hovsgol in Mongolia.

You know that feeling when you meet a family for the first time and you instantly hit it off with them, knowing you will fast become good friends? Well, that happened to me while at the NCGE conference in San Juan last week. I met Theresa Blain, owner of Visualize World Geography, which teaches students to visualize nations by turning the world into memorable shapes. Theresa and her husband Gregg, homeschool their two talented sons, Hunter (age 14) and Gregory (age 12). The family lives on a sprawling ranch in Western Texas, and the boys recently took it upon themselves to start keeping bees on their property. Naturally, I was curious about this and just had to ask them all about it. Beekeeping is fascinating!

Gregory (left) and Hunter (right) Blain suit up for their beekeeping duties on their Texas ranch

What made you decide to become beekeepers?

Hunter and Gregory: We were talking to our parents about multiple land uses of the ranch. Beekeeping came up as a possibility because it is compatible with cattle raising – our main use of land. Also, wild hives were infiltrating some of our barns, and had to be moved. This indicated that the ranch was a good bee habitat, and if we did become beekeepers, we could then have better control of where the hives would be located, and also receive the benefit of collecting honey.

How did you figure out what you needed to do to get started keeping bees?

Hunter: We read books on the subject, like “The Hive and the Honeybee,” and we asked older beekeepers for advice.

Gregory: I read a lot of descriptions of products in bee catalogs.

What kind of equipment is necessary to keep bees?

Gregory: I wouldn’t go without a bee suit—which includes gloves, a veil, a hat, and a full body suit. Plus you need a smoker, and a hive tool (a hive tool is just a strangely shaped pry bar). Each apiary has a couple of large hives, some smaller ones on top called supers, and a queen excluder between them to keep the queen from laying eggs in the honey comb. Also, make sure to bring an extra empty hive with empty frames to store good honey for transport and processing.

Hunter: You need an extractor to spin the honey off the frames, a capping scratcher to remove the wax caps from the cells, bottles, and a sanitary work environment. We use a hot plate, two stainless steel filters—one fine, one coarse, and different stainless pots, trays, and funnels. We wrap our extractor with heat tape to make the honey flow faster. A comb cutter is helpful if you are packaging the honey with the comb.

The beekeepers hard at work

How many apiaries do you have?

Gregory: We have two completed apiaries, and another area fenced off and ready for bees.

Did you attract your bees or purchase them?

Hunter: The two completed apiaries have purchased bees, while the other bees will come from a wild hive that is in a bad spot, and must be moved for safety reasons.

Gregory: You can domesticate a wild beehive by moving the queen bee into a man-made hive.

Do you have any idea how many bees live in your hive(s)?

Gregory: We have tens of thousands, round about, but it would take a while to “bee” exact and count them.

Hee, Hee. I am glad to know that beekeepers have a keen sense of humor! Do you need permission from your town or some sort of a permit to keep bees on a residential property?

Hunter: Because our hives are outside city limits, they have no jurisdiction over our operation. However, we do report our hives and honey production to the USDA for statistical purposes.

That is so cool that you do that! I’ve read that bees need a large water source to make honey and keep their hives cool. How do you provide your bees with water?

Hunter: Although water is not a major factor in cooling the hives (bees use their wings like cordless, portable fans), water is very important to make honey. Currently, the bees obtain their water from ponds about a quarter mile away. However, we decided that for this upcoming season, we will put 55 gallon drums of water next to each hive, making sure to cut just a small hole on top of each drum so that not much more than our bees can get into them. Giving the bees a water source right next to their hives will mean less of the bees’ time will be spent retrieving water, and more bees can be dedicated to gathering nectar, and producing honey.

That’s brilliant! Where is the pollen source coming from for your bees?

Gregory: Bees gather nectar from flowers—for the bees, moving pollen around is accidental. Our bees gather from wildflower patches that vary from year to year. Another important source is mesquite trees.

How long does it take your bees to make a jar’s worth of honey?

Hunter: Our honey production is rising as the hives become more established. This is because the bees do not have to re-make the wax cells from scratch. This year, we harvested about 110 pounds of honey.

Yum. How do you safely get the honey out of the hive?

Greogory: Make sure you zip your bee suit up completely. Use smoke to keep the bees calm and off the honey; use the hive too—check for honey content and bee larvae called brood. Honey comb with brood must be left in the hive. The hive contains a number of wooden frames—separate pieces on which the bees construct their comb. We put the good frames in an extra empty hive and drive away. The wandering bees eventually head back to their own hive.

Does it look the same as the honey we buy at the store?

Hunter: It looks about the same, except the color may vary depending on which flowers are predominant that year. Our honey tends to be sweeter because it isn’t made from a single flower type, or an agricultural crop.

What do you do with the honey?

Hunter: We bottle it, and then we eat it, give it to friends; we even sell some too.

Hunter proudly displays the honey collected from the beehives

Have either of you ever been stung?

Gregory: One time, my veil was slightly unzipped, and 6 or 7 bees unexpectedly got in. It was fine for a while, until one crawled into my left nostril. That’s when I started running. The quick reaction disturbed the bees and I found myself at a curve in the road about half a mile away, just about lost. As I mentioned before, always make sure your bee suit is completely zipped!

That must have been rather scary! What have you learned about bees that surprised you since you started doing this?

Hunter: The Africanized bees are amazingly aggressive. They form a dense black cloud and sting everything in sight.

Gregory: Bees can sting multiple times on most animals. Human skin traps the stinging organ, which is fatal for the bee.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about bees with our readers?

Hunter: After the initial set up costs, and the first year’s experience, beekeeping is easy and inexpensive. It is true that building fences and assembling hives require hard work, and that a good extractor can be pricey, but if you are going to raise bees, you have to think of them as a long-term deal.

Gregory: Dadant and Sons, a beekeepers supply company, has good, introductory books and a lot of the things you would need to get started.

Hunter and Gregory, I cannot thank you enough for sharing all your knowledge with us. I learned so much about keeping bees. Please keep us informed about your progress with the beehives and any other fascinating new projects you take on. With curiosity such as yours, I am sure there will be many other exciting adventures in your future!

We had a blustery tropical thunderstorm here yesterday. The temp dropped about 20 degrees within a few minutes around 8 pm. The lightning was incredible! I almost crawled under the bed with the dog to hide from the rage of it all.

Lightning kills about 100 people in the US every year and many more are injured. Florida ranks the highest state in the US in lightning strikes. And I can tell you from experience – do not talk on a corded phone during a thunderstorm. I recently had a painful zap in my ear from lightning while on the phone. My ear hurt for several days!

One of Smart Poodle Publishing’s favorite websites of all time is WanderingEducators.com – not just because I am a contributing editor – but because this site provides readers with essential content about traveling and geography. Publisher Jessie Voigts is one of the most brilliant and creative people I’ve ever met. And as you can see from these photos, she’s got a way with the camera. She was generous enough to share them with us. They were taken in her home state of Michigan. Thank you Jessie!